That's why a factory reset is crucial before you sell, recycle, or donate your Android phone or tablet. It can also be a last-ditch attempt at troubleshooting persistent issues with your device.

Taking the basic steps—deleting data from or reformatting a computer hard drive, or doing a factory reset on a smart phone or tablet—might be enough to discourage identity thieves. But this ...

If a soft reset doesn't solve your problem, though, and all other troubleshooting fails as well, you might want to perform a factory reset. A factory reset will completely remove your data and ...